Book Review | One Day in December

I finished my most recent book, One Day in December, in approximately twelve hours (less if you take out the time I was at work or driving or eating).

This story catalogs the ten years after Laurie and Jack lock eyes on a bus one day in December. Laurie searches for a year, to only find him at her Christmas party the next December…as the boyfriend of her best friend/roommate.

There are a few reasons why I really loved this book:

The characters made sense. The characters acted in ways that made sense to the people I learned them to be.

Adding to the point above, I felt like I really got to learn the characters. As the story takes place over ten years, there is a lot of growth, maturity, and history involved.

The story was a romance but it could have actually happened (for the most part).

It wasn’t overly cheesy or sexualized.

The friendships seem real. We see the nitty gritty complications and issues and the happy highs, but nothing is too dramatized or overly done.

I’m the same age (approximately) as the characters when they start out.

Here are a few of the characters:

Laurie. Laurie and I are very similar. From the very first page, I related to her and quirks. She is sensible and the kind of character I want to cheer on.

Jack. Jack is the other piece of the perspective (not quite half of the time, but maybe a third of the book).

Sarah. Sarah is a dang good best friend to Laurie. She is passionate, encouraging, engaging, but also a little insecure.

There are many other ancillary characters like their families, various significant others, etc.

This book could have been a lot of things. It is a lot of things. The thing it isn’t is too much. It has just the right amount of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was exciting and drawn out but not to the point where you’re frustrated tremendously.